Eddie had agreed to drive me back to Grace's house where hopefully I could seek refuge before I had to go home. With enough luck I hoped I could lead my parents to believe that I had spent the night there, which would hopefully lessen any punishments.

I decided not to put my dress back on, as it was stained and ripped and anyone would immediately ask questions. I wasn't so lucky as far as footwear is concerned and had only my heels, which I kept off for now. If I was going to go home without the dress, I would need to borrow some sleep clothes with Grace to pull this one off.

The car ride was spent in mostly peaceful silence. The early morning sun was bright and harsh, but offered a soft golden glow over our small midwestern town. The leaves were just at the start of changing colors, and the air was crisp. With no other cars on the streets, it only took a few minutes to get to her neighborhood.

We idled up to Grace's house as quietly as possible to not wake the neighbors. It was still early for a Saturday morning so I was hoping that her parents weren't awake yet and I'd be able to sneak inside.

"Pray for me. Grace was absolutely not happy with me last night," I said, as I was preparing myself to leave the car and sneak out.

"I'm sure she'll understand. Do you want me to stick around for a few just to make sure I don't abandon you?" He asked.

"You don't have to… worst case scenario I'll walk home, it's not too far." I reasoned.

"I am not letting you walk home in those," he motioned to the heels I had kicked off by my feet.

"Okay fine, if I'm not back in like 5 minutes, you can head out."

"Deal. You can keep the clothes, by the way, if I can keep these…" he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling up my wadded panties that I had accidentally left on his bedroom floor. I leaned over and snatched them from his fist so quickly. "Not a chance," I said. "God, how embarrassing."

"There's always next time," he laughed.

"I don't think you understand, there won't be a next time. Not anytime soon anyway. My parents saw you kiss me, that's enough for them to pull the plug and send me to a boarding school. We'll be lucky if I'm back at school on Monday, and if I am, I will definitely be under house arrest. Our late night tryst was one very costly excursion." I said. Maybe I had a penchant for dramatics, but everything I said was rooted in the truth.

"I am a patient man. Also, I'm not afraid to get creative. I'll still see you in school…" He said with a smile. I was immediately brought back to last night, when he mentioned all the places he had imagined us together.

"I don't know if I'm that adventurous" I argued.

"Hey you went along with last night, clearly I have perfected the power of persuasion."

"Clearly," I said, rolling my eyes but leaning over the center console to rest my head on his shoulder. He scooted over to get closer as well and rested his head on mine.

"Besides, if your parents kick you out, you know where to find me. Actually, I'm hoping they kick you out so we can get back to the original sex dungeon plan." He said, judging my shoulder.

"You are hopeless," I said but I leaned up to kiss him goodbye. We remained that way for a few moments until I broke out of the kiss.

"Here goes nothing," I said, moving away and turning to open the car door.

"Hey," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me back a little. "For the first time in my life, I'm looking forward to school on Monday."

"Wow, and you've got detention all next week, I must be doing something right," I said. My heart was doing somersaults knowing he was already looking forward to seeing me.

"What can I say, last night was worth it," Eddie said with the most genuine smile plastered on his face.

"I'll see you Monday," I said, matching his smile and then turning to get out of the car. I waved a little goodbye as I made my way up the driveway.

"Hey wait!" I heard Eddie say, the window now rolled down. I walked back to find him holding out the silly little tiara he had stolen for me. "Can't rule your kingdom without your crown," he said as he handed it to me with a wink. I rolled my eyes again, laughing.

Grace lived in a one level house, her bedroom situated in the back. She had an exterior door in her bedroom leading to the garden. Surprisingly, we had never even considered using that door to sneak out at night before. We were good kids, strictly rule followers. Or at least, I was until last night.

I made it to the backyard and was greeted by her cat Oscar. He was a scraggly orange thing she'd had since she was 10. When they got him as a kitten he was supposed to be an indoor cat but he had a penchant for roaming the neighborhood, especially at night when the mice were rampant. He saw me and began meowing wildly.

"Oscar, shh." I tried to get him to stop by leaning down and petting him. This made him brush up against my legs and howl louder. He wanted inside and wanted to be fed by his humans, and screaming had always worked for him before. I scooped him up in my arms and approached the back door. I gave a soft knock that hopefully would rouse her. I waited a few seconds, no response. I knocked again a little harder but still, nothing. I put my hand on the handle and started turning, hoping beyond hope it would be unlocked. I was met with no resistance as I turned the handle fully and the latch gave way.

With the door now open, Oscar leapt from my arms and sauntered into the room, still meowing. I closed the door behind me and set my dress and heels down by the door, hiding the tiara within the dress, and heard Grace stir a little at the noise. I was trying to figure out how I was supposed to wake her up when Oscar jumped into bed with her and started nuzzling against her hand, waking her before I could.

"Grace," I whispered, approaching the bed but keeping my distance in case she was a violent waker. She almost shot up, her eyes widened that someone else was in her room, but she didn't scream. She looked tired and confused to see me this early.

"Your door was unlocked," I whispered again.

"Annie, why are you here?" She said with a mixture of panic and annoyance.

"I need your help," I pleaded, trying to make a plan.

"Are those Eddie's clothes?" She interjected, squinting at me. I was wearing an old band t shirt and a pair of plaid pajama pants, clearly not my usual Saturday morning attire.

I gave a deep sigh. Obviously she already knew the answer, but I nodded. I could feel the incoming judgement, could see the gears working in her head. There were few logical explanations for why I would show up at her house this early wearing another person's clothes and begging for her help.

"Did your parents see you come in last night?" I asked.

"No, my mom was asleep by the time I got home. Did you sleep with him?" she replied. Bold question, my friend, but one I wasn't ready to address.

"It got late and he let me borrow something more comfortable," I said, not quite the truth but definitely not a lie. "Do you mind covering for me and telling your parents I stayed here?" I asked. We were having two separate conversations at this point. Neither one letting up.

"I've been covering for you a lot lately…" Grace argued.

"I know, and I promise this will be the last time, I just need to borrow some clothes," I pleaded, joining her to sit on the bed. I knew I was being unfair, but this was my only option. She held Oscar in her hands as the cat purred loudly. His absolute comfort made the whole situation even more awkward.

"At this point, Annie, I don't see why I should." She said plainly.

"Look, I'm sorry you're getting wrapped up in my chaos. If this is about the gas money arrangement from the dance, I promise I'll get it to you on Monday, I just really need a cover so my parents don't murder me," I argued. Maybe she was upset she had promised to help us get into the dance and we didn't uphold our end of the deal.

"I don't want your money, Annie, I want to know what the hell happened to my friend." Grace said, raising her voice. Why was she on the full attack before 8am?!

"Nothing happened! I'm sorry I blew you off at the dance but if you'd give me a chance to explain-"

"Nothing happened, but you spent the night pulling tricks at the dance with Eddie the freak Munson of all people? Nothing happened, but you showed up to my house early in the morning in his clothing, and you're telling me you didn't sleep with him but your face says otherwise? Nothing happened, but now you need my help so you don't get in trouble with your parents? It doesn't sound like nothing happened," she said, crossing her hands over her chest and huffing.

Well I just got absolutely called out on my shit behavior. I hated how right she was, and how desperate I was acting. I hated that she didn't want to believe me, but also that she knew me well enough to know exactly what had gone down last night. Despite her questioning, I still didn't feel like she was giving me a valid chance to explain. Moreover, she didn't even seem interested in my side of the story. It felt like she just wanted to fight and call me out. If she had been interested, she would have given me a chance to talk about it.

"I wish you wouldn't call him that. And I'm fine." I said shortly, getting a little defensive. This was not going the way I had hoped. At that moment I heard a car start on the street and drive away. Fuck. There goes my getaway car in case things got any worse. And boy, were they getting worse.

"Yeah well, while you were off being 'fine' with Eddie, the rest of us had to move on, okay?" Her words meant to bite, and she said this loud enough that Oscar leapt off the bed.

"What do you mean, move on?" I asked, hurt by her words. I saw Grace almost every day, we still hung out after school and sat with each other in class and at lunch period. What was it that she wasn't sharing with me?

"Oh would you get over yourself for one moment to realize that things don't only happen to you, Annie? While you've got your head in the clouds, real life is happening all around you." She said. I could tell she had been holding something from me for a while and now it was bubbling over. She was avoiding my eyes and picking at her nails.

"What happened Grace? I see you every day, I didn't know anything was wrong?" I said, my tone probably more defensive than it needed to be. But it's not like she couldn't have mentioned if something was going on.

"You haven't noticed that my mom has been the only one who picks me up from school or choir practice?" She asked, still not really looking at me. She rode the bus in the morning because she didn't have a car, but her parents usually alternated pick up duties depending on the day.

"No, I didn't notice. Did something happen with your dad?" I asked.

"He went on a business trip to Detroit two weeks ago and extended his trip for a few days. Last Monday he called and said he'd accepted a job with the partner firm and would be relocating to the Michigan office permanently." She said, sadness in her voice.

"Oh… is your family moving to Michigan? Will you still be here for spring Semester?" I asked. I was not expecting to hear that my best friend might be taken away from me sooner than graduation. No wonder she had been anxious and guarded.

"Annie, my dad is moving to Michigan. But he didn't want me and mom to come. He claims it's because he wants me to be able to finish out the year at Hawkins and not disrupt my track to college. He said I can come move in with him after graduation but I don't know how serious he was…"

"Well that'll be hard to not have your dad around but it sounds like he wants what's best for you?" I questioned. Annie's dad seemed like a good guy, albeit a little absent. It didn't seem like him to just up and leave though.

"Yeah, it's the perfect excuse. But on Thursday my mom got divorce paperwork in the mail. He totally sprung it on her, they didn't even talk about separating. They had been fighting a lot, and at some point the fighting turned into apathy. They barely talk anymore unless they have to. And it's like he's afraid to even tell me the truth about what is going on. It's just so fucking cowardly to escape the moment I turn 18 and abandon your family." That's right. Grace had turned 18 not even a month ago. Her siblings were all older and out of the house. The more I thought about it, the more obvious it was that he had probably been planning this.

"Grace, I'm so sorry, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"You weren't around enough to listen." She shrugged. I was taken aback by that statement. I could tell she felt a little bad for withholding something like this from me. But I felt like an even worse friend for letting it get to this. My schedule hadn't really changed, but I can see that I definitely spent more time in my own thoughts the past few weeks. Still, if that's the way she felt it was only fair that I believed her. Maybe I had been more absent than I had originally thought.

"I don't know what to say. I didn't realize…"

"Look, don't worry about it. My mom is probably waking up now. We'll go downstairs and I'll ask if I can borrow her car to take you home," she said, ending the conversation abruptly. I could tell she was upset about the whole situation and didn't want to continue talking.

Grace got off the bed and rummaged through her dresser, handing me a matching sleep set to change into. She turned around as I changed quickly. I asked to borrow a spare bag to store Eddie's clothes and the stolen tiara in, hiding it from her sight. I wasn't ready to explain that story yet.

Without really talking, I followed her downstairs. We found her mom in the kitchen, fixing a pot of coffee.

"Oh hey girls. Annie, I didn't know you spent the night. Can I make you girls any breakfast?" She asked. You could tell she was trying, but also the woman was absolutely running on empty. A familiar sadness was painted on her face.

"No thanks Mrs. T. I forgot to phone my parents last night that I was staying here, I've gotta get going before my dad freaks. Do you mind if Grace gives me a quick ride home?" I asked.

"Oh, sure. Best to not keep your dad worrying," she said, probably relieved that she wouldn't be the one to have to drive me home.

"Be back soon," Grace said shortly, grabbing the car keys off the hook and just about stomping towards the door. I was glad she had opened up to me this morning but our friendship was still on very thin ice. I bid a quick goodbye to her mother and followed Grace out of the front door into the still cool morning air. I was on a hero's journey to face the most challenging final boss: My parents.